Real Estate and Related Topics

159 Paraggi Court in Portofino Equestrian Center in Clayton

This is a magnificent home in Portofino on a beautiful landscaped lot with trees and a sodded front yard. The Custom built 2864sqft home has a beautiful stone and fiber cement front with an elegant covered entrance.

The grand foyer is magnificent with custom inlaid hardwood floors glisting in the sunshine, a custom iron handrail staircase and balcony and the floor to ceiling stone fireplace in the living room is what dominates the beautiful living room.

The home has four bedrooms the master suite is located on the main floor as is a second bedroom on the opposite side of the house which could be an in-law suite.The master suite is stunning with a whirlpool tub and glass enclosed shower with custom tile and granite dual vanity sinks.The remaining two bedrooms are located on the second floor and there is a Jack and Jill bathroom up there. The second floor also has a bonus room and an office/study which has a custom Juliette balcony both rooms have surround sound installed.

The Kitchen has custom 42 inch kitchen cabinets with soft close drawers, granite counter tops, custom gas cook top,convection oven, Bosch dishwasher, trash compactor, all stainless steel. The pantry light is door activated, custom tile back splash and state of the art equipment makes this kitchen a cook's dream

The dining room has custom hardwood floors, custom paneling, big windows over looking the sodded front lawn with irrigation system.

The community has some of the best horse facilities around which include an amazing barn,paddock, riding trails and hiking trails and river access. Read more about what Portofino has to offer here.

Community pool and fitness center, great schools, as noted by Business Week which named the zip code 27527 as tops in the country for schools and affordable housing.

The home is listed for $419,900 it is an Energy Star Rated home with natural gas and a high efficiency heating and AC system.

Get 100% Financing On These Homes and $8000 First Time Homebuyers Tax Credit...Sweet

These Clayton Homes are perfect for anyone looking to buy a great home,with no money down and get a tax credit to boot.And with rates as low as they are right now, there has probably never been a better time to buy a home.

208 Hocutt Drive, $145,000, 3 Bedroom 2.5 Bath, 1530sqft,Great Open Floor Plan, Perfect for Families and Entertaining.

114 Kirkland Court, $149,900 3 Bedrooms, 2 Bath, 1259sqft Almost an Acre of Beautiful Trees and Lawn, Hardwood Floors.

As for those of you looking for a home and you are not a first time home buyer, you are entitled to up to a $6500 tax credit. What's the catch? You have to be under contract before April 30th and you have to close by June 30th.

143 Tally Ho Drive, $165,000, 3 Bedroom, 2 Bath, 1590sqft 2 Car Garage, Beautiful Acre Lot, Getting New Floors and Paint.

261 Wyndfall Lane,$142,000, 3 Bedroom,2 Bath,1230sqft, Almost 2 Amazing Wooded Acres, Screened Porch, Huge Kitchen and Bright Living Room.

Johnston County North Carolina is eligible for 100% Financing with the USDA along with certain income conditions and property values. The $8000 Tax Credit is just that, so if you owe $2000 in taxes you would receive $6000 which does not have to be paid back.

Interest rates of 5%-5.50% are as good as it is likely to get and once they start to climb they may keep going...may!

Where is Social Media Taking You.......Try Skylines Cafe in Clayton For Networking 101.

I've said this before about Social Media and writing a Blog, that you must never forget the SOCIAL aspect of it all and where it can take you, you have to get out and press skin.

My fellow Active Rainer Eleanor Thorne and I noticed that there was no social media groups in Johnston County and Clayton, so we met with some local business owners and decided to start one. We had our first meeting last night at Skylines Cafe in Clayton and considering the weather forecasters were predicting 3-6 inches of snow we had a great turnout.

We met B.J. Deal from Deal Realty, Paula Anderson with Southern Cruise Connections, Lisa Sullivan with lisasullivanpr.com, Geneve "Raye" Hayden with Triple R Travel, Jason Pedley, a Freelance Copywriter and Internet Marketing Consultant, Beth Montanaro with Primary Residential Mortgage Inc., Steve Thorne with First Financial Services Inc. Lisa Smith with The Rodney Carroll team at HomeTown Realty, Tina Bolick Owner with Skylines Cafe.

Eleanor got the meeting started with a great agenda and laid the ground work for where we should be going, I met some great people who are serious about using social media and together we can help grow each others business's.

I'll keep you posted!

Taft Woods West in Clayton, Homes From The High $300's

Taft Woods West is a premier subdivision in Clayton, nestled back in the woods it features custom built homes that range in price from the high $300's to $500. Most of the wooded lots are at least  half an acre with some over an acre. The homes currently on the market range in size from about 2300sq.ft. to over 3200 sq.ft. Typical features would be granite counter tops, hardwood floors, crown molding,brick or stone exterior. These are some of the nicest homes in Clayton.

Taft Woods West is centrally located in zip code 27527, recently voted as one of the top zip codes in the country by Business Week Magazine as having the best schools and most affordable housing. It is convenient to Raleigh, Smithfield, Research Triangle Park and Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The schools currently would be River Dell  Elementary, Archer Lodge Middle and Clayton High, but new schools are being built and so they may change.

The subdivision has about sixty lots, with a few still available, there is a creek and a walking trail through the community. Clayton is a growing town in Johnston County, with a good job prospect as there have been recent announcements of job openings.There is also a new hospital which just opened and the new Community Center which is scheduled to open next Monday. So if you are looking for homes in Clayton, give me a call and we can go seen them.

"Fresh" at The Clayton Center Gets People Talking About Organic Food In Clayton

Clayton is going ORGANIC!! Who Knew?

The Clayton Farm and Community Market hosted Johnston FRESH where local farmers and suppliers came out to showcase their products. This was a great event and showed the vast amount of suppliers both Organic and Traditional who farm in our area. There were vegetable growers, beef producers, honey, dairy and seed sellers, herb farms, along with the Johnston County Ag. Extension Dept.

There was a great turnout which shows there is a lot of interest in locally produced food and organically grown crops and livestock. Johnston County is a Farming county with lots of homes sprouting up and the number of people moving into towns like Clayton, Archer Lodge, Smithfield is growing all the time. So with all this farmland and all these people it makes sense that we should be buying our food locally.

The Piedmont area of North Carolina has a long growing season and the number of fruits and vegetables available is impressive. The number of farms practicing Organic Farming in Johnston County is growing and we heard of two local farms that are starting the process. The night featured a showing of the movie Fresh along with folks from the following:

Riverman's Mushrooms, Bushrods Produce, TayLee Organics, Happy Hollow Farm, Toad Song Farm,
Lazy-O Farm, Sunday Morning Farm, Smith's Nursery, Shamrocks Buzzy Bees, Triple T Ranch,
Farm to Fork Meats, Inc. The Produce Box, Creekside Farms, Rare Earth Farms,
The Seed Lady from Hudson's Hardware, Organic Gardeners, JoCo Ag Extension Dept, Clayton Community Garden Group.

More Jobs For Clayton NC With Northeast Foods Plans To Build Plant

Northeast Foods a supplier to McDonalds has announced it will build a plant in Clayton North Carolina. The Company will build an 80,000 square foot bakery on U.S. 70 Business in Clayton. They plan on creating 84 jobs paying an average annual salary of $41,815.

The decision to choose Clayton was the proximity to the new Golden State Foods warehouse in Garner, Golden State Foods  supplies Mc Donalds in several states. This is the latest in a series of good news on the job front in Clayton, along with the recent announcemment by Talecris that they will be expanding their facility in Clayton and adding 200 plus new jobs.Along with the recent opening of a plant by the company Turlington, a maker of commercial bakery equipment.

The proximity to I95 for transportation and the recent ranking for Clayton in Business Week Magazine as one of the most Affordable places to live with the best schools, were also factors.

Glen Laurel Subdivision in Clayton Market Update.

 So as of today, February 22nd 2010 there are

42 Active Homes For Sale

1 Contingent sale

3 Pending Sales

3 Sold Homes

The price range for Active homes is $299,900- $599,900

The Average Price per Square Foot for Active Homes is $114

The Average Price Per Square Foot for the Pending Homes is $112

The Average Price Per Square Foot for the Sold Homes is $98

Of the Active Homes 1 is a Foreclosure and 2 are Short sales.

New Construction accounted for 4 Actives, 1 Contingent and 1 Sold Home

If you would like to see any of  the homes for sale in Glen Laurel  visit my web site, davidhodoherty

If I can provide additional information about Glen laurel Subdivision or any other subdivisions in Clayton please let me know

This information is time sensitive. the information is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed. The homes listed represent homes listed on TMLS. Seller concessions may affect the sales price and may not be reflected here.

Twice in The Space Of An Hour I Got A Call From My Blog On ActiveRain.

So I am driving home this afternoon when my phone rings and the young person asks is this Riverwood Swim Club?

I said no and asked where she got my number

"On the Internet, I was looking for information about Riverwood Swim Club and found your website"

Well as I was driving I was not able to look up the number for her but I gave her an idea of where to look.

She found me with this post,

  Riverwood Athletic Club in Clayton NC

Later on I get a call " hello I live in North Fort and I wonder could you tell me who does the landscaping at the entrance to Southwick Farm?" So I said I did not know but I would be happy to find out,"Where did you get my number I asked?

" Oh, I've been reading your blog on Localism, very good!"

He found me with this one,

Southwick Farm Subdivision in Clayton NC

This comes a week after I get a call from the listing coordinator for one of the top agents in Raleigh asking if I could tell her if this subdivision had an HOA. Where did you get my number I asked?

"I googled it and your blog came up"

She found me with this one too,

Southwick Farm Subdivision in Clayton NC

So although I didn't get a listing or a sale from them it shows that people are finding my blog and reading it!

I Called It .....Winter Is Outta Here! In Clayton, North Carolina Anyway.

Yeah I know you're thinking "he's crazy, February 20th!" but until you've lived here in North Carolina.

 This

 -------->

       to this

You see we get a short Winter, a nice Spring, a nice Long Summer ( it can get a little toasty) and a Beautiful Fall. So yesterday I was back out in the yard, raking the grass that will consume me in a short while, while the sun beat down. The temperature was in the Fifties and today Saturday expected to be 58 and Sunday ready....63!

So what else, well the boys played outside yesterday from the time they got off the bus until about six thirty,one didn't even come in the house. Today they likely will be outside most of the day. I might squeeze in a trip to the Logans Garden Center at Seaboard Station in Raleigh between showing houses. I will probably get seed potatoes, onion sets and carrot seeds, all things that I will spend hours trying to grow.

I have become interested in wild birds after watching them in the snow, so I would like to put up some feeders, ones that won't be a food source for the squirrels! I'll go and talk to Tony at Wild Birds Unlimited in Clayton.

Lets see what else? Yard sales will be starting in earnest soon. I plan on going to more this year it's the whole getting up at the crack of dawn thing(we'll see if that happens) it's a great way to meet people and if you are disciplined you can always find something. I bought a fly fishing rod for a couple of bucks just to try and first cast on a local pond, caught a little sunny.

Which brings me to fishing, this year I want to get the boys out much more, we have so many places around here, it is quite common to see stocked ponds in subdivisions and any one with land nearly always has a pond.

The beach! Any Hahn, Crystal Coast REALTOR was the inspiration for this post as she did a great story about the beautiful Crystal Coast. We can be on the beach in two and a half hours from here in Clayton.

Oh Yeah the other thing that's great about this time of year is houses start selling, people are out looking, and change and growth and newness is in the air.

Come and check it out, besides all this we have great affordable housing, we have all kinds of homes from townhomes to million dollar estates, we have good schools, jobs and an area that constantly gets awarded one of the best places to live.

I'll show you around.